Exploring child information poverty, looking at children’s access (or lack of) to information, in particular children living in poverty.

Just reading the latest posting from 23 (more) librarians Frances - doctoral researcher about 'Exploring child information poverty, looking at children’s access (or lack of) to information, in particular children living in poverty' a doctoral research by Frances Breslin (University of Strathclyde). 

Frances post really interested me form several points. Firstly that it is information literacy orientated and secondly it is research focused and like me has become a PhD student.

Frances is at the early stages.

I am currently undertaking my literature review in which I justify my research, set parameters and seek information to assist my research.  This stage feels like a personal treasure hunt, I am looking to know more about certain topics and have to navigate a sea of information to track down what is pertinent. 

I look forward to hearing more about Frances research / PhD and are now following her on Twitter @FBreslinDavda  

if you haven't heard of the 23 librarians blog and 23 (more) librarians then I would recommend it 

Call for papers for LILAC 2015

This year LILAC 2015 will be hosted by Newcastle University Library, 8-10 April 2015. This is the first time ithas been held in Newcastle and I'm sure it will be a great venue. 

The call for papers opened at the begining of the month. 

The conference themes for 2015 will be:
• IL and employability
• Delivering IL through new technologies
• IL for the under-18s
• Research based IL
• Creative approaches to IL
• Outreach and collaboration

Some good themes there hopefully they will get papers and delegates from outside HE to widen the usual LILAC offering.  

More information can be found on the LILAC web site 

Deadline for proposals:
• Call for papers opens 1st October 2014
• Call for papers closes 12th November 2014 at 1700 GMT

All proposals are blind refereed by a panel of reviewers.

Applicants will be notified by 17th December 2014 if they have been successful or otherwise. If you have any queries please contact papers@lilacconference.com.

Modelling information literacy from a lifelong learning perspective

It has been all go for me of late. I submitted a proposal to Edinburgh Napier University to do a PhD by Published Works drawing upon my research and development work on information literacy and lifelong learning undertaken between 2004 and 2010 as part of the Scottish Information Literacy Project (2004-2010), and which now continues with this Information Literacy Community of Practice The right information: information skills for a 21st century Scotland. Following a rigorous process, my proposal was considered at faculty level, I was intereviewd and then my proposal was considered at university level. Happily the outcome was successfull.  

I am now a PhD student currently working on a thesis, provisionally entitled The development of a model of information literacy from a lifelong learning perspective, for the award of PhD by Published Works. My PhD is on a part time basis and I'm required to submit a 25,000 word thesis by September 2015. It is a daunting thought but exciting too and I'm really lucky to have Hazel Hall as my Director of Studies, and Dr Alison Brettle of the University of Salford as my second supervisor. 

See Hazel's blog posting about me also about Iris Buunk and John Mowbray, two new research students within the same research centre (CSI):

• Modelling information literacy from a lifelong learning perspective: new work by Christine Irving 

• Two new doctoral studies related to LIS and social media 

I'm still a part-time Research Fellow in the Centre for Social Informatics (CSI) at Edinburgh Napier University, and  currently part of a Mapping the workforce: library, archives, records, information, and knowledge management professions in the UK. This is a 1-year contract funded by The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) and the Archives and Records Association (ARA) in August 2014.  

I'll try and keep you up-to-date with my progress. 

Critical pedagogy for the Development of political agency - presentation

Lauren Smith is a doctoral researcher in LIS at University of Strathclyde is looking at young people's critical information literacy and political agency/participation. She recently tweeted about her presentation at the IFLA information Literacy Satellite - Critical pedagogy for the Development of political agency. It is a timely and interesting theme with the Scottish Independence Referendum and the age of voters for this referendum being lowered to 16.  I will be following up her critical pedagogy references. A full paper is to follow.

Personal learning networks

An item about 'Personal learning networks' in LinkedIn caught my eye this morning, I followed up and it took me to the IRISS blog about using social medi for workplace knowledge sharing and learning and a blog posting by Ian Watson called Just do it! Social media in the workplace 

Over the last couple of years I have been increasingly using social media for work / projects I have been involved in, including Twitter and LinkedIn. I know that it has widened my professional network and my learning. I hadn't thought of it as building my personal learning network.

If you are or would like to build your personal learning network then have a look at the IRISS site 'Building your personal learning network' as it says 

"People who can seek new information, make sense of it, and share it with their colleagues will be an asset to any work team". 

Interestingly I subsequently read an email by Ian Watson to the CoP highlitghing this item. My networks including social media and good old fashioned email seem to be working for me and my learning.